Cheap seats Fantastic Fair Locals. score big Men’s Bell Pole socccer tourney brings teams here from around the northwest\SPORTS B12 $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST 6utside of the Terrace area)... °: : VOL: 13 NO. 23 Trees date back three centuries Logger on trial here for felling trees once used by natives By KEITH FREEMAN SOME OF the culturally modified trees cut down on Kitsumkalum Mountain by a Terrace small- scale salvage operator last year were used by na- tives more than 300 years ago, a Terrace court- room heard on Friday. Crown witness Morley Eldridge, a Victoria ar- chaeological researcher with Millennia Research, told Terrace provincial court that one of the trees cut down by George Halpert last year was modified by natives here in 1631. That would date it, in Canadian history, to the time when Samuel de Champlain was Governor of New France, and much of the terrilory west of the Great Lakes had not yet been discovered by Europeans. Eldridge also testified that another tree’s bark was peeled by natives in 1768, almost a decade before Bri- tain’s Captain James Cook landed on Vancouver Island. Halpert was charged last year under the Heritage Conservation Act for damaging or altering a provincial heritage site and removing culturally modified trees from the site, as well as damaging or altering a site that con- tained physical evidence of human habitation or use prior to 1846. The charges are the first of their kind under the act, which came into effect two years ago. Some of the cedar trees in question, Eldridge said, had strips of bark peeled off of them. Other trees felled in the same cutblock by Halpert had test holes in them, which natives had made to deter- mine whether the tree was suitable for their needs, Eldridge told prosecutor Christine Birnie that a test hele on one of the trees was “bisected by the: faller’s chainsaw.” Defence lawyer David Mardiros asked Eldridge whe- ther or not a person without knowledge of archaeology would be able to recognize the cultural modifications. Eldridge said that the native test holes would have been large enough for even a non-archaeologist to Tecog- nize, while the bark peelings would require a profession- al archacologist’s examination to detect, “A non-archaeologist could not be expected to identi- fy them as such,” Eldridge told the court. He added that some of the bark peelings done by na- tives on the trees required archaeologists to count the tings to identify the peelings as being from the 1600s. Continued Page A11 Hawkair takes to the skyand airline ticket prices immediately go for a dive\NEWS A7 | Hospital expects |; budget boost MILLS MEMORIAL Hos- pital expects ta receive this week what Terrace and Area Health Council Chair Bob Kelly says is a significant increase in its operating budget. It’s now nearly half-way through the 2000-2001 fis- cal year, and it’s not yet known how much more money the hospital will get in its operating budget. Health council Chair Bob Kelly and hospital CEO Dieter Kuntz joined a Sept. 7 conference call where health authorities were told to expect budget letters this week. While there weren’t any Specifics, “The indication was that all health authori- lies were to receive signif- icant increases to their baseline budgets,” Kelly said. The hospital’s wish list includes more money for hiring additional nursing staff, more money for oph- thalmology, funding for a baby program, recognition that Terrace’s pacemaker program is a regional ser- vice, and more money for a hernia program here. The health council also wants this year’s budget to cover increases in Work- er’s Compensation Board premiums, and to offset the increased natural pas costs estimated at $250,000 a year. The health council has alsa asked the health ministry for an eight-bed, alternative care facility for elderly patienls because it would improve bed avail- ability at Mills Memorial Hospital, Kuntz said. It’s unknown if the bud- get letter thal’s expected to arrive this week will placate Terrace’s doctors, who continue to sound the alarm over inadequate hospital funding, The doctors are at- tempting to secure a deal with the province for more Blue. skies and furry critters made for a spectacular Skeena Valley Fall FairSCOMMUNITY BL WEDNESDAY September 13, 2000 tit Tak Arar ae DWAYNE JOHNSON celebrates after sinking a birdie putt on the 11th hole at the Skeana Valley Golf and Country Club Championships, which took place on the weekend. The course additions mean local golfers can look forward to a full course of 18 different holes. For a look at what the new links have to offer and how they came inta play, see page BS. Bingo bonuses draw fire Libs kick off quest for health cure here TERRACE will be the peatedly in the past few years. money for on-call services and recruiting and reten- tion packages. Dr. Bill Redpath said Friday the imminent in- crease in the hospital’s budget was unlikely to avert the planned strike by Terrace’s specialists, or their counterparts other rural communities. Meanwhile, provinces across the country are waiting to hear if the fed- eral government will re- store transfer payments for health care, easing pres- sure on the system. “I’m still aptimistic, with the federal govern- ment kicking in more dol- lars, there will be a lift,” Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht said. Group questions licence decisions By JEFF NAGEL ANGER over how lucrative bingo profits get divvied up has spilled out in the open, Carol Sabo, executive director of the K’san House Society, says she’s frustrated that her group has been unable to get a bigger slice of the $1.6 million in bingo money doled out here each year, A new two-year bingo schedule was released this summer that runs from this July to next June, and then for the year after that. K’san House's ration of bingo days has been trimmed from six per year to three, she said, in part be- cause they were late filing an appli- cation form. With each bingo slot worth about $2,500 in revenue, that works out to about $7,500. K’san House could use much more money, she said, and is now requesting $104,000. It operates a transition house for abused women and children, a sex- ual assault centre and an emergency shelter. “The shelter is closed four hours a day because we don’t have money,” Sabo said. “And the snow and the wind is coming.” Meanwhile, she says, other local groups that haven't asked for an in- crease have been awarded more bingo time slots. The Terrace Salmonid Enhance- ment Society, Sabo said, saw its bingo allotment rise from two to 13 per year. “We are of the understanding they in fact received more than they actually applied for,” Sabo wrote in a letter to B.C, Gaming Commission officials. She said other bingo winners in- clude the local Knights of Colum- bus, which jumps from three slots to 14 per year, and the Terrace Com- munity Volunteer Bureau, which rises from six last year to 17 this year and 20 the following year. “We see a Parent Advisory Coun- cil from a neighbouring community getting a new licence for five bingas in each of the next two years,” Sabo said, referring to the PAC at Kiti- mat’s Mount Elizabeth Secondary School. , “The Pipes and Drums Society tripled their numbers. We see the Minor Hockey Association granted 36 per year when we know our Continued Page A10 No problem with school bus brakes here A BRAKE manufacturer’s safety warning doesn’t apply to school buses here, Coastal Bus Lines confirmed last week. Blue Bird school buses opera- ted in Terrace, Hazelton, Kitwan- ga and Smithers do nat have the same type of brakes that were the subject of a recent warning, manager Jerry Peltier said. Blue Bitd buses. Coastal Bus Lines Ltd. operations A defect was detected in an anti-lock brake system manufac- tured by Bendix, a U.S, company, and used in thousands of Notth American school buses, including Early last week, Peltier con- the entire fleet . Briges Canada indicated the school buses with air brakes. matic brakes. tacted the Canadian supplier of Blue Bird buses, which comprise warning only covered Blue Bird Fortunately, all of Coastal Bus Line’s school buses have pneu- Peltier stressed his company has a thorough maintenance pro- gram and professional drivers. “We're carrying a valuable commodity, these kids.” Worried parents called to see if Terrace’s buses were affected. *We've had.a couple of calls from parents,” he said. slarting point next week for a series of B,C, Liberal party-organized round table discussions aimed at finding answers to the pro- vince’s health care pro- blems. The party’s “Dialogue on Health Care” sessions kick off here and in Smi- thers on Sept. 19, The session here is at the Coast Inn of the West starting at 10 a.m. Leader Gordon Camp- bell and the rest of caucus want to hear from patients, community leaders and health professionals at the series of 23 meetings around the province. Liberal health critic Colin Hanson said it's hoped a community per- spective on health policy will emerge. ; “We have always said we want front line care workers to have a role in policy-making and this is our effort to reach out to them,” he said. It isn’t the: first time B.C, Liberals have. been here talking to people about health care, Hanson and others have visited re- But despite that exper- ience, Hanson was short on specific prescriptions to cure the health care crisis. Asked how much money a B.C. Liberal goy- ernment would have of- fered doctors to settle their current pay dispute, he said the Liberals don’t have the inside knowledge to sort out the validity of conflicting claims by the doctors and NDP, “I think there has to be enough money put on the table to bring stability,” Hanson said. “I don’t have @ magic number as to what that is.” Over the mid- and long- term, he said, the B.C. Liberals wauld provide for- giveable student loans for health care professionals lo practice in upg a viced areas. a "We. also have to in- crease the number of seats we have at he UBC medi- cal school,” he said. “B.C, is number 10 out of 10 pro- vinces when it comes to the number of doctors we train per 100,000 popula- tion.”